president obama has cut short his christmas holiday and is on his way back to washington for the fiscal cliff talks. without a deal, budget cuts and tax rises will automatically start on january 1. a senior congressional reporter with the american news service "politico," says while he is doubtful they will strike a deal before next year, obama and democrats have the upper hand. >> they know that the polls are on their side, that a majority of americans would blame the republicans for the failure, and they know that -- they say president obama was just reelected on a mandate to raise taxes on the stockton% of income earners and the republican party is dead set against tax increases. -- on the top 2% of incoming earners. he wants to raise taxes on folks making more than a million dollars, but that was not enough for democrats and that was too much for lot of republicans. the republicans in the house are the ones who endangered the speaker's efforts to cut a compromise deal. the democrats know that they are the ones that have the upper hand in the fight and if we go into the new year, a n